T LAW & DISORDER
Jerry O’Connell’s new dramedy embraces and skewers cop shows
CARTER Tuesday, 10 p.m., WGN America
ELEVISION has hosted a number of police procedurals centered on writers-turned-a-mateur-detectives (think “Murder She Wrote” and “Castle”). Jerry O’Connell sees his new cop dramedy, “Carter,” both as a twist on that genre and as a way to skewer police series tropes. “We don’t shy away from the fact that we are a procedural drama. We have to appease an audience,” he said. “But we have a really fun time making fun of that genre, as well, and I think people are gonna have a good laugh with us.” O’Connell plays Harley Carter, an actor famous for playing a TV cop who escapes to his small Canadian hometown after a TMZ-worthy scandal. After a murder hits close to home for him, his childhood friend-turned-detective Sam Shaw (Sydney Poitier Heartsong) grudgingly teams up with Carter to solve the crime.
O’Connell, 44, recently spoke with The Post about the show, which filmed in Northern Ontario, Canada, last summer.
How would you describe Harley?
He thinks with his TV knowledge of what a detective is [that] he can solve crimes. He’s Jessica Fletcher 2.0. Instead of Fletcher and Castle, who were novelists, he’s using TV tricks to sort of solve crimes. He’s telling the cops, like, “Look, it’s gonna be one of the suspects you met earlier. It’s gonna be the one that we didn’t think did it. I’m telling you, a twist is coming up.” And everyone’s like, “Shut up — you have no idea what you’re talking about.” And then of course a twist happens and he’s like, “I told you! I told you!”
What drew you to the role?
It’s fun to take on inside jokes about Hollywood. I worked on a procedural called “Crossing Jordan” for six seasons. Not to throw shade — I got paid pretty handsomely, it was super-fun and I got to hang out with beautiful Jill Hennessy — but when you’re in Season 6, you go, “Oh, here comes the chase scene again.” It gets a little monotonous, and “Carter” really makes fun of that.
What are Harley’s flaws?
There’s a vanity there. It’s always fun to play vanity because it is basically insecurity; there’s weirdly a vulnerability in it. I guess it’s just my homage to Garry Shandling, the whole “How does my hair look?” sort of thing.
Is it a stretch that Carter would think he could solve crimes?
On “Crossing Jordan,” for all those years, they gave me a big gun and a big badge. You can’t help but start to — this is going to make me sound like a total psycho — but I would start, like, directing traffic in the parking lot and stuff. Telling people they can’t park in places. “Hey, hey, hey! Ya can’t park there! You gotta move this car!” Luckily I never attempted to make a citizen’s arrest.
Would you make a good actor- turned-detective?
I have done a couple police ridealongs, and there is no way I could ever be a cop. It’s too difficult of a job. There’s just too much pressure. I really am very grateful and thankful to all law enforcement and everything they do. I’m too much of a chicken. —